Firearms dealers would pay $25 for every gun sold in Seattle, and gun owners would be required to report lost or stolen firearms, under a proposal unveiled by Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess.

“Taxpayers in Seattle pay for millions of dollars in emergency medical care every year for people who have been shot,” said Burgess, a former Seattle police officer. “It’s time for the gun industry to chip in to help defray these costs.”

Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole: “Gun violence is both a public safety and a public health issue. I fully support funding effective intervention programs to reduce gun violence.”

The city has attempted gun measures — a buyback program under Mayor Mike McGinn, a ban on guns in parks under Mayor Greg Nickels — with disappointing results.

Gun rights advocates contend that what doomed the park ban — a state law that prohibits local governments from regulating firearms — might also doom Burgess’ proposal.

The gun rights movement was quick to respond.

“If these ordinances are passed, we’ll see the city in court,” said Alan Gottlieb, head of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Bear Arms.

Gun advocates mounted a successsful legal challenge when the city tried to ban possession of firearms in Seattle parks.

“We think the Burgess tax proposal is illegal under Washington state’s preemption law,” Gottlieb added. “We beat Seattle on another gun control measure three years ago because of the preemption statute. The law hasn’t changed and neither, apparently, has Seattle’s anti-gun municipal attitude.”

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes argued, however: “Governments tax cars and gasoline to build safe roads. It only makes sense to tax the source of gun violence — guns and ammunition — to address their impact on public health and safety.”

Burgess is putting his proposal on a fast track. It will be considered by the City Council’s education and governance committee at 9:30 a.m. July 15. Burgess is up for re-election and his opponents have suggested that the proposal is about election-year politics.

The proposal won a quick endorsement from Mayor Ed Murray, who said it “provides critical funding for gun violence resources and prevention.”

“Every year in Seattle, gun violence devastates hundreds of lives — both victims of murders, assaults and suicides, as well as family members struggling to make sense of the devastation,” the mayor said in a statement.

“Our community will not stand by as our youth, particularly youth of color, continue to pay the highest price for inaction on gun violence at the national and state level.”

Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess”It’s time for the gun industry to chip in and help defray these costs.”.

Burgess is no stranger to the issue. He and wife, Joleen, were part of a march from St. Mark’s Cathedral to St. James Cathedral in the wake of the 2012 assassination of 20 first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school.

The city’s budget office estimates a gun violence tax will raise between $300,000 and $500,000 each year.

Seattle has funded basic research on gun safety. In 2013, the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center found that persons hospitalized for a firearm injury were 20 times more likely to be re-hospitalized for another firearm injury than people admitted to the hospital for other reasons.

“Gun violence is both a public safety and a public health issue,” said Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole. “I fully support funding effective intervention programs to reduce gun violence.

“The Harborview research into repeat offenders and victims uses both public health and public safety lenses to address the needs of people who are most at risk from gun violence.”

Since January of 2012, Seattle police have taken into evidence lockers 2,657 firearms. Guns were involved in 69 percent of the Emerald City’s homicides, 17 percent of robberies and 8 percent of aggravated assaults between January of 2012 and May of 2015.

Stolen guns have become a significant factor in commission of crimes.

Under Burgess’ bill, individuals would be required to report a lost or stolen firearm within 24 hours of discovery. Violators would face a civil penalty of up to $500.

Firearms businesses with a federal license are required under federal law to report lost or stolen guns, but the law does not extend to gun owners.